Though I’ve been saying it for years, the venerable Wall Street Journal finally got around to asking this week if it’s “time to reconsider the militarization of American policing.”

Um, hell yeah it is.

There are 97% more SWAT raids today than there were in 1980 — from 2,000 to over 50,000 per year!

WSJ noted:

… from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers — American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

In 1983, only 13% of towns under 50,000 had SWAT teams. Today, over 80% of them have men and women of below-average intelligence ready to force you to the ground, maggot.

NASA, the IRS, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Education, and several other agencies that have no business having armed officers now ALL have SWAT teams.

This massive standing army of intimidation — one our Founders feared — has been slowly developed since the 1960s.

At a glacial pace, you didn’t even notice it, did you?

Hundreds of innocent people have been killed in bungled SWAT operations. Cops routinely (and illegally) harass citizens for recording their harsh and unconstitutional actions.

And — surprise, surprise! — a federal judge has now ruled that it’s perfectly legal to only hire people of below-average intelligence to carry out these acts. A thinking man might question them, after all. And we wouldn’t want that.

Even the Pope — the guy who heads the institution that launders billions and covered up the rape of children — is saying the path we’re on isn’t sustainable. (In fairness, this guy’s better than the last. He’s taken steps to tighten Vatican law already. But the institution is still terrible, and I served on the altar for ten years.)

His visit to Brazil comes at a time when thousands are rioting because of the government’s failure to provide basic necessities while spending billions to host the World Cup. Taking the side of the protesters, Pope Francis noted that globally “we risk having a generation that hasn’t held a job. Personal dignity comes from working, from earning your bread.”

This comes as we learn that more Americans are now on federal welfare than work in the private sector.

That’s probably why so many people are home during those police raids…

Sorry for the cynicism, but you have to agree it’s getting pretty bad out there.

New polls out this week show two-thirds of Americans say the federal government is broken.

Over 40% think capitalism isn’t working.

And more than half agree that hard work and determination are no longer a guarantee of success.

MEGAGETOVERIT

Slap a politician or anyone else that has done an injustice to you. Slap the plumber that has ripped you of or the store person that has been rude to you. Expose the mongrels that make life hell for the fair and innocent.